3 Responses

1. I don’t think it would be cost effective to convert to hybrid, the easiest step would be to change the way company vehicles are driven, the city I live in has a brochure for city leased vehicles that basically states, when driving, drive smoothly, ie no fast accellerating or heavy braking, pull away from lights or stop signs smoothly but gently, and coast to a stop whenever possible.

2. I would suggest looking at diesel cars/trucks. there are some basic conversion kits that allow a diesel to run on used vegetable oil. you could develop a plan to make this type of conversion more accessable/desireable. i don’t know all the technicals on converting to hybrid, but i would guess that it would be impractical. the engines work diferently, same with transmisions. also, the batteries would take up a lot of space. think about the diesel idea, there is lots of info on the web, you may be able to combine a couple ideas to come up with something really unique

3. Yes, here is how to do it. The key is to build SERIAL hybrids, not the parallel hybrids being sold now. A serial hybrid is an electric car, with a gas generator which simply charges the batteries. Serial hybrids get much better gas mileage and are much simpler mechanically (only one transmission instead of two.) The added advantage is being able to plug the car in and drive on grid electricity as well (for about a penny per mile.)
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   The first thing to do is to look at existing electric vehicle conversion businesses. Converting gas cars to electricity costs about $5000 to $10000 (using old technology – new tech conversions more expensive.) Some useful links are on this page:
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   http://www.squidoo.com/cheap-electric-car/
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   Any of these electric cars can be a hybrid with the addition of a gasoline generator. Even a $1000 generator from your local Home Depot would work. I drive an EV, and carry a small generator of this type for emergencies.
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   You may also want to look at the new battery technologies that are maturing this year. First are the Altairnano batteries. These are improved Lithium batteries that are safer, faster charging, and longer lasting. Here’s some info on them:
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   http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/node/957
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   The Altairnanos are used in the upcoming Phoenix electric car. This car gets up to 250 miles per charge, can recharge in only TEN minutes, and can carry 5 passengers and cargo at 95mph. The batteries are good for more than 200,000 miles. Info here:
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   http://phoenixmotorcars.com/models/fleet.html
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   Also exciting is supercapacitor technology. Supercapacitors are better than batteries in that they never wear out, and can be charged in mere seconds. EESTOR is the company to watch. Here’s some info:
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   http://imdb.com/title/tt0489037/board/thread/64444673?d=latest&t=20070119204822#latest
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   Then we have the Chinese, who are focused on bringing down the cost of li-ion batteries. These batteries are both better, and much cheaper (1/10th the cost) than most other lithium batteries:
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   http://www.everspring.net/product-battery.htm
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   And last, take a look at Firefly batteries. This company has improved the 100-year-old Lead-Acid battery to make it much lighter and much more powerful. These batteries are also expected to be much less expensive than the competition:
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   http://www.fireflyenergy.com/ffy.html
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   Best of luck!
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